


[game] poledance for free drinks

by alxndrlightwoods



Series: with, across, after [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: (Clary and Izzy are the underage drinking tag they're 18 and 20), (in a fun way), BDSM, Dom Jace Wayland, Dom Magnus Bane, Dom/sub, Good Parabatai Jace Wayland, Hair-pulling, Kink Negotiation, Light Angst, Light Petting, Look the parabatai bond is basically a qpr fight me, M/M, Manhandling, Negotiations, Platonic BDSM, Pole Dancing, Pseudo-Incest, Punishment, Queerplatonic Relationships, Relationship Negotiation, Sub Alec Lightwood, Touch-Starved, Underage Drinking, honeypot mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 11:39:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19250455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alxndrlightwoods/pseuds/alxndrlightwoods
Summary: There's a fun rule at Pandemonium. Well, less a rule and more a game. If you dance on one of the poles for a song, you get a free round of drinks. It doesn't matter how good you are, and you can even do it more than once.But the better you are, the more drinks you earn with a dance.Jace, Izzy, and Alec areverygood. They haven't paid for drinks at Pandemonium foryears.





	[game] poledance for free drinks

**Author's Note:**

> we have bits and pieces of meta that exist across all our fics, and we're slowly writing them down. this isn't the first piece of meta we've turned into a short fic, but it's the first one being posted on ao3 (mostly because it's longer than expected. by a lot.)
> 
> the meta in this case is: if you pole dance on one of the poles at Pandemonium, you get free drinks! the better you dance, the more drinks your dance is worth.
> 
> one shot. complete.

“This is a stupid plan,” Alec mutters as they walk past the line for Pandemonium. Downworlders don’t  _ wait _ to enter the club, and whatever else downworlders might think of shadowhunters, they’re included in that.

“It’s a great plan,” Izzy counters. It’d been her plan, so of course she was the first to defend it.

“It’s barely better than your downworld rave plan, Izzy,” Alec insists, scowling at her. Jace rolls his eyes, because if Alec had had his way, he’d have insisted Magnus come to the Institute. Which had exactly zero chance of working, and why Izzy had come up with  _ this _ plan after Alec had vetoed the rave at Hardtail.

“It’ll work, Alec,” Jace says, to stave off Alec winding himself up further. “As long as the plan works, it’s a good plan.”

“Don’t use my words against me,” Alec says, bitchy. He’s been bitchy all evening, having finally moved past ‘sullen’, and Jace honestly prefers this, which probably says a lot about him, none of it good.

“I’m not sure how pole dancing is supposed to be a plan,” Clary says from Jace’s other side, glancing over at Izzy.

“I’m very pretty,” Izzy tells her with a grin, “and I’d be prettier if  _ someone _ would let me wear a certain necklace.”

That last part is directed at Alec, who had also vetoed Izzy  _ wearing _ the necklace, which is why it’s in Jace’s pocket, since Jace is in charge of making the deal with magic, by dint of being the person Clary is closest to and having been the one to send the original fire message to Magnus.

They don’t pause when they hit the door at the club, the bouncer letting them through without stopping them, because they’re regulars. Even if they hadn’t been, their runes are more than enough to grant them immediate entry.

They have a deal to make, and it’s important. But — 

Jace stops Alec with a hand in the middle of his chest as soon as they’re inside, watching Izzy and Clary’s progress to the bar. He turns back to his parabatai when he decides they’re far enough away — there’s no reason to have  _ this  _ particular conversation with Clary right now, when they’ve got bigger things to worry about — which is  _ also _ when Alec gets impatient and says his name.

“Jace?” Alec says, a little tense under his hand. Jace taps two fingers lightly on Alec’s chest, shutting him up instantly.

“You’re mine til we leave the club,” Jace says, and feels Alec unwind under his hand. They’ve already got a plan of action, one Jace is running, because he’s the one Clary trusts most right now, so Alec doesn’t  _ need _ to run this show.

Alec already looks more relaxed when Jace looks him over, and his parabatai sways forward slightly when Jace removes his hand. So  _ needy. _ Jace can’t help his amused smile.

He digs in his pocket for a few seconds before pulling out the two non-descript leather cuffs he’d hooked together and stashed in there. He lets them dangle from his fingers as he lifts them up so Alec can see. Alec’s gaze goes a little darker and he bites his lip, holds out his wrist without protest when Jace unbuckles the first cuff to put it on him.

They’re nothing special. Just black leather, done up with two buckles, but when they’re buckled around Alec’s wrists, they’re tight enough that every time he uses his hands, he’ll feel the press of them. Tight enough that if Alec wears them for long enough while he does things, they leave imprints behind. Not too tight to fight in though. Jace isn’t quite that stupid.

They’re also not bondage cuffs, both because Jace would  _ never _ take Alec out wearing something so obvious, and also because Jace doesn’t tie Alec down. Jace is self-aware — he doesn’t have nearly enough willpower for that.

He doesn’t really touch Alec much either, times like these, for the exact same reason. It’d be too damn easy to convince himself to take it just a small step further, every time, and then he’d end up with Alec tied down, begging for Jace to fuck him, and Jace would do it, because — well. He’s self-aware. And bad at denying himself things. And then they’d both be dead, and Jace keeps control of this situation by telling himself that wouldn’t be worth it.

Alec relies on Jace to set their boundaries, so Jace has to hard no on a lot of things he would really rather  _ not _ hard no on.

Jace hears Alec’s shuddery sigh when he finishes buckling on the second cuff. “Good?” Jace asks, because Alec always gets  _ one _ chance to protest. One chance to tell Jace no, or set an additional limit for Jace to approve or deny. Most of the time, Jace says no. Most of the time, Alec only tries to set a limit because he  _ wants _ Jace to tell him no.

“Good,” Alec says immediately, fingers brushing against Jace’s palm when he draws his hand away. Jace surveys him critically. Alec’s been unreasonably stressed since Clary invaded their lives, which is partly Jace’s fault, which is why he’s currently fixing it.

Jace grabs Alec by the collar of that ridiculous jean shirt he’d decided to wear and drags him close, leaning in so he can speak directly into Alec’s ear, their cheeks pressed together. “Be good,” Jace says, as Alec leans into him, because Jace rarely touches him like this, gives him the touch he craves.

Then he steps away and heads over to the bar to find Izzy and Clary, confident in the fact that Alec is a bare step behind him.

Izzy takes in the cuffs on Alec’s wrists without comment, flashing a grin at Jace. “You’re first,” she informs him. There’s already a round of drinks on the bar in front of her — they always get an advance, because they come here often enough that every bartender knows them.

“First? For what?” Clary asks.

“Pandemonium gives you free drinks if you dance on the pole,” Izzy says, gesturing at one of the poles scattered around the club. “The better you dance, the more rounds you get free. Magnus is a fan of rewarding people who try things, regardless of how good you are, so you get drinks even if you suck at it.”

Clary looks between the pole, Izzy, and Jace, eyes wide. “And — Jace? Jace is going to pole dance? Jace  _ knows _ how to pole dance?”

“We all know,” Izzy says, grabbing their drinks heading over to a booth that just got vacated. It’s their favourite — close to the bar, the VIP area, and the dance floor. Their backs are to a wall and they’ve got a clear view of most of the club.

“It’s good flexibility training,” Jace says, picking up the explanation. “We’ll teach you later.”

“Is this like — a thing? A shadowhunter thing? All shadowhunters know how to pole dance?” Clary asks, looking mildly freaked out, like they broke her a little. Jace picks up the drink he doesn’t recognise and puts it in her hand. She downs half of it without looking, before making a face down at the drink. Jace chuckles and hears Alec smother a laugh.

“No, but we’re the best for a reason, and that reason is because we don’t turn our noses up at unorthodox training methods. It was just me, originally, but Jace and Alec both saw the benefits of  _ improved flexibility _ so they picked it up too,” Izzy explains, before pointing a demanding finger at Jace. “Dance, I want more drinks. And Alec needs to take his turn before Magnus shows up.”

“Alec can go first, then,” Jace counters. It is technically his turn to get them their drinks, since at this point only one of them has to dance every time they come here. Jace is pretty sure the fact that a trio of shadowhunters frequent Pandemonium is the club’s best-kept secret from its owner — Magnus has a rather vehement dislike of shadowhunters, and since he has yet to show up and kick them out, Jace is going to guess that no one has mentioned that fact to him.

“No,” Alec says immediately, which — Jace had mostly been joking. He never gives into Izzy  _ gracefully _ on their nights out, part of their game.

“Alec,” Jace says slowly, turning to face him, and Alec has already realised he’s fucked up, even as Jace taps his fingers on the table and looks at him, “you’re dancing.”

Alec is frozen, clearly torn between doing what Jace told him — which is what he should do, if he wants this to go well for him — and arguing.

“It’s your turn,” Alec says, going with the ‘arguing’ option. Jace shouldn’t be surprised. Everyone has been pushing the bounds of Alec’s tolerance the past few days, Jace shouldn’t have expected pushing the limits they have and ordering him to be good to  _ solve that, _ but he’d been hoping to make it a little further into the night before this came up. Like, say, after Magnus had agreed to their deal and fucked off.

“Which I would have taken, if you hadn’t just told me  _ no,” _ Jace says. “Did you think that through before you said, it Alec? Or did you forget, already?”

“I feel like I’m misunderstanding this conversation,” Clary says faintly.

Izzy makes a shushing noise at her. “Don’t ask too many questions, Clary, your life will be easier.”

“I —  _ no,” _ Alec says, and Jace is pretty sure that’s the answer to both the questions he asked, but that doesn’t change the fact that Alec  _ definitely _ shouldn’t have phrased his answer like that.

“If you’re going to keep saying no, you should probably stop talking altogether,” Jace informs him, and watches Alec’s mouth snap shut.

“I’m  _ not _ misunderstanding this conversation,” Clary says, like she wishes she hadn’t realised this.

Alec’s fidgeting with one of the cuffs, and he hasn’t looked away from Jace but the only reason for that is because he’s depending on seeing Jace’s face to figure out how upset Jace actually is.

Which is ‘not very’, but Alec isn’t  _ quite _ confident enough in that to risk it.

“Do you always follow orders like that?” someone asks curiously from behind them, and Jace twists around to look, and gets his first close look at Magnus Bane.

Who is looking at Alec. Jace turns his head to look at Alec, and finds him staring at Magnus like he’s caught.

“Like what?” Alec asks, because right now, he’s mostly incapable of  _ not _ answering questions when asked directly. Especially from someone like  _ Magnus, _ who is eyeing Alec like he’s imagining what Alec will look like with his clothes off. Who was definitely interested in how well Alec followed  _ orders. _

Which is… unexpected. People don’t usually look at  _ Alec _ when Izzy and Jace are  _ right there. _ It’s their loss, of course, because Alec is absolutely worth looking at, but most people just… don’t.

_ “Well,” _ Magnus clarifies, and Jace sees Alec  _ blush. _

“I…” Alec catches himself, biting his lip, and Jace  _ knows _ it’s because he told Alec to stop saying no. When he glances over at Magnus again, he can tell Magnus knows that too, judging by the smirk on his face.

Alec does get points for not slipping and saying it anyway, considering the effect Magnus is having on him.

“Was that a ‘no’?” Magnus asks, because he either really likes Alec — which is Jace’s guess — or he really doesn’t, and wants to get Alec in trouble.

Or possibly he really likes Alec and still wants to get him in trouble, which Jace can’t blame him for.

“I’m going to dance,” Alec says abruptly, choosing to get  _ out  _ of the conversation rather than try to navigate whatever Magnus wants from him.

Jace cannot  _ believe _ Alec just chose to go put himself in the center of attention rather than have a conversation. He hates both but he hates being the center of attention  _ more. _

It’s possible he thinks Magnus isn’t going to be watching him. Or maybe he’s willing to deal with that since he’ll be too far away to tell.

“Magnus,” Jace starts, as Magnus snaps his fingers, a drink appearing in his hand, and settles himself in their booth, on the opposite end of it as Izzy and Clary.

Magnus makes a humming noise, eyes locked on Alec.

“We’re here to make a deal,” Jace tells him, and gets no better reaction, despite the fact that Jace had dangled the possibility of getting his necklace back in the fire message.

Jace waits a beat then asks, “Are you actually listening to me?”

“I’m listening,” Magnus confirms. “I’m just not interested in what you have to say.”

“Excuse me?” Jace says, thankful that Izzy is keeping Clary quiet. He can see them out of the corner of his eye, Izzy’s hand over her mouth as she whispers in Clary’s ear.

“He can make the deal,” Magnus says, tipping his drink toward Alec, as Alec slowly twists around the pole. He’s halfway up, holding himself up with only his legs, upside down. Jace would like to be able to appreciate the sight, but he can’t right now, because Magnus is asking for something he’s not going to get.

“If you expect him to have a conversation with you right now that’s wishful thinking,” Jace says.

“Oh?” Magnus says, and it’s not a question, it’s a demand for an explanation, albeit a polite one. He still hasn’t looked away from Alec.

Jace pauses. There’s no way Magnus doesn’t know exactly why Alec won’t be able to handle a negotiation with him right now. “Seriously?” he asks instead of going with his first impulse, which was ‘No offence but you know  _ exactly _ why that’s wishful thinking’.

“I’m very serious,” Magnus confirms. “You want the deal, he does it.”

The song is done, and Alec is heading back over. He stumbles a little when he notices Magnus sitting in their booth,  _ looking at him, _ and he bypasses the man entirely to try and hide behind Jace.

This was not how this was supposed to go. It was supposed to be Izzy or Jace on the pole, getting Magnus’s attention and softening him up to make the deal, not  _ Alec. _ Whichever one of them he had seemed most interested in, and their guess  _ had _ been Izzy, but — it’s Alec, instead. And they need this deal.

Jace feels a little bad for the solution he just came up with.

“Compromise,” he says, wrapping a hand around Alec’s arm. He pulls Alec over to Magnus and dumps him into the other man’s lap. 

“Now will you negotiate with me?” he asks.

\--

_ This _ was a turn of events Magnus had  _ not _ expected. He steadies Alec — Alexander, he thinks, Maryse’s eldest — as the shadowhunter adjusts to his change in position, because Alexander  _ clearly _ hadn’t been expecting his boyfriend to drop him into Magnus’s lap.

“Are you always this free with your toys?” Magnus asks, rubbing soothing circles on Alexander’s hip with his thumbs. Alexander is still and tense above him, balanced on his knees over Magnus’s lap, which just won’t do.

“He’s not my toy,” Jace says, as Magnus nudges Alexander’s legs a little further apart and coaxes him gently into sitting on Magnus’s lap. He goes along with it easily, because he  _ does _ follow orders well, despite his unvoiced protest earlier, but he doesn’t relax. 

Magnus ignores that blatantly untrue statement to address Alexander. “Your boyfriend really doesn’t treat you right, does he, darling?” Magnus asks, not without sympathy.

The other Lightwood sibling — Isabelle, Magnus recalls — is snickering into her hand, and dear Clary looks like she’s thinking about bolting. Probably not the best way for her to find out about the nature of the  _ relationship _ between her new friends.

“I’m not his boyfriend,” Jace says, and he sounds  _ offended, _ which draws Magnus’s gaze away from Alexander. “We’re parabatai, it’s illegal for us to date.”

If Magnus had to guess, he’s offended because he’d  _ like _ to be Alexander’s boyfriend. Too bad. Magnus would feel sympathetic, but that means that Alexander is single, so he’s not.

“Then you won’t mind if I steal him,” Magnus muses, petting Alexander’s back slowly, tricking him into relaxing without noticing. He’s touch-starved and so wound up he makes  _ Magnus’s  _ shoulders ache in sympathy.

Above him, Alexander bites off a word half-way through. Magnus heard enough to know he almost said  _ please _ before he caught himself and realised he was saying it out loud.

When Magnus looks up at him again, he’s  _ mortified, _ and when his parabatai says, considering, “Ok,” he makes another aborted noise — this one Magnus doesn’t hear enough of to translate — before he  _ buries his face in Magnus’s shoulder. _

_ Another _ unexpected turn of events. Magnus slides one hand up Alexander’s back to cup the back of his neck, making Alexander  _ shiver _ and go limp in Magnus’s lap; no more holding himself away, like Magnus has finally figured out the correct combination of actions to make his tension melt away.

When Magnus looks at Jace again, over Alexander’s shoulder, he looks considering.

“You want Biscuit’s memories,” Magnus says, still running his fingers up and down Alexander’s back, “I’ll help you get them. And in exchange, I get to take care of Alexander tonight and every other night he wants me to afterwards, with you covering for him with your parents, since I highly doubt Maryse or Robert have managed to become  _ less _ bigoted since I last saw them.”

“No!” Clary says from next to Isabelle, the other Lightwood sliding almost off the seat as she giggles hysterically.

“Deal,” Jace says, at almost the same time.

“I don’t want you to trade a  _ person _ for my memories, Jace!” Clary insists. “Doesn’t Alec get a say in this?”

“I’m his say in this,” Jace says, and Magnus has to hide his smirk in Alexander’s hair, because Alexander shivers again at that.  _ Definitely _ true, then, that Jace can agree in Alexander’s place. Magnus had even been expecting it.

_ “No,” _ Clary says again, insistent. “You can’t just agree for him, that’s not ok, Jace! People aren’t currency!”

Magnus notes the expression on Jace’s face, which is disbelief, and how Isabelle stops giggling long enough to go, “Yes we are.”

_ “Humans aren’t currency,” _ Clary hisses.

“We’re not human,” Jace tells her flatly. “But fine.”

“Alec,” Jace says, moving until he can put his hand in Alexander’s hair, tugging a little, and Magnus would protest, but he did clearly interrupt their game earlier, and since he doesn’t know the rules he tightens his grip on Alexander’s neck and waits, instead.

Alexander doesn’t fight Jace pulling his head up and away from Magnus’s shoulder, or Jace turning him so that they’re looking at each other.

“Would you like to object?” Jace asks, “or are you good?”

Alexander wets his bottom lip before answering. “Yeah,” he says, voice rough. “I’m good.”

“See?” Jace says, running his hand through Alexander’s hair before cupping his cheek. Alexander leans into it, eyes fluttering closed. “You get your memories back, Alec finally gets someone to fuck him, Magnus gets — I don’t know, what are you getting, Magnus? Sex? A boyfriend?”

Magnus is too caught up in the middle of the sentence to answer Jace’s question. “He’s a  _ virgin?” _ Magnus blurts, incredulously.

Jace is smirking down at him. “Yup,” he agrees, letting the end of the word  _ pop, _ “I certainly wasn’t allowed to fuck him, and it’s not like I was going to just let him go off with someone unsupervised.”

“Is that your request to watch?” Magnus asks, brain operating on autopilot. He stops petting Alexander’s back when he realises what he just asked. That hadn’t been something he meant to say — not that he had any objections to exhibitionism, but still, given the nature of their relationship, possibly not the best thing to ask.

Jace has a complicated expression on his face. “...Maybe,” he allows. “Why, is that on offer?”

Alexander is blushing again and he’s turned his face into Jace’s hand in an attempt to hide, so Magnus can tell  _ he’s _ on board with the possibility.

“Maybe,” Magnus agrees, instead of thinking too deeply on it. Then, because if he wants his payment, he needs to pay up his half of the deal, “Did you want those memories now?”

Jace glances away from Magnus to look over Clary and Isabelle, licking his lips as he thinks. “No, you’re good,” he finally says. “We can set up a time later, or you can just tell Alec before you return him,” he continues, pulling his hand away from Alexander’s face. 

Alexander rights himself smoothly, turning back to Magnus, and that was a goodbye if Magnus ever saw one. Magnus feels a pang of sympathy for their situation.

“You can watch,” Magnus decides. “Later.”

Jace is silent for a moment, studying Magnus, and Alexander in Magnus’s lap, before he dips his head slightly in a nod. “Later,” he agrees.

His eyes drop to Alexander’s wrists, then back up to Magnus’s face. Magnus draws one of Alexander’s hands away from his shoulder and inspects the cuff around it, running a finger along the edge. Alexander shivers, and when Magnus looks at him he’s biting his lip.

“I’ll return him intact tomorrow,” Magnus says, shifting so he can stand smoothly from the booth and pull Alexander with him. Jace moves out of the way, far enough back so that he and Alexander don’t touch when Magnus has them both upright. “Well, more or less.”

“Considerably less, please,” Jace agrees, as Isabelle starts giggling again. “Or we’ll have to re-negotiate our deal.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Magnus says, flashing Jace a smile that’s all  _ teeth. _ Alexander is Magnus’s until  _ Alexander _ decides he doesn’t want to be anymore, now. And Magnus is going to invest time and effort into making sure he doesn’t decide that, because he may have just wanted sex when he started this, but now he wants  _ more. _ Wants to be the one that Alexander leans on and turns to, the way he wanted to and couldn’t with his parabatai. 

It makes his heart ache, the desperation and sadness echoing between the two parabatai. In  _ Alexander.  _ Magnus should know better, by now, than to offer his heart so freely, so soon after meeting someone, to  _ want _ like this because someone resonates with him.

He never learns, though. So he’s going to do his best to make sure Alexander never wants to leave. And his best is  _ very good. _

**Author's Note:**

> with, across, after is a series of unconnected fics explaining random pieces of meta/headcanons that we have that are present in all of our actual fics.


End file.
